[Author’s Note: This post was updated on April 6th, 2011, to add/remove sites that I frequent on the Internet.]

[Author’s Note #2: This post was updated again on June 14th, 2011, to reflect that I am now on Twitter.]

I am by no means Carmen Sandiego, but I thought it’d be helpful to do a post about the various places where I can be found on the Internet.

Genuine Thriving – Obviously, first and foremost, you can find me here at my home site, Genuine Thriving. There is an about page for me and there is also an author page where you will find a list of my posts.

Twitter – Jeremiah Stanghini – I am now on Twitter (as I announced in this post). I’ll do my best to tweet things that I think are worth repeating to keep the information train flowing.

YouTube – Jeremiah Stanghini – I have a channel on YouTube where I upload videos of presentations. You’ll also find videos that I “like” on YouTube along with videos that I have commented on.

Squidoo – Jeremiah Stanghini – I have a ‘lensmsater’ page on Squidoo listing the various lenses (mini-webpages) I have created. All of the proceeds from my mini-pages (lenses) are donated to KIVA (loans that change lives).

The 1st round of the NFL playoffs wrapped up this evening and as I took in some of the games, I couldn’t help but think about how an organizational systems consultant could have a major impact on a sports team. I have no doubt that there are people similar to organizational consultants who do work within the organization and focus on these kinds of issues, but I don’t know that this would be enough. I’ve mentioned before that I think it is important to have someone from outside the organization be involved because the outsider will look at the organization without any bias — at least, that would be the hope.

Just as there are in Fortune 500 companies, sports teams have many levels, different departments, and on top of this, all of the ‘stuff’ that the employee of a given position will bring to their job. Meaning, if Joe is the Director of Media Relations for a sports team who just had a major fight within the locker room and Joe has come into work after having a major disagreement with one of his teenage daughters, that disagreement from home will likely (no matter how well-intentioned Joe is) bleed into his meetings with various media personnel. An organizational systems consultant may see something like this coming and have put something in place so that instead of Joe talking with the media (and potentially causing bad press for the team), Joe’s second-in-command handles the media for that day.

Even beyond these kinds of incidents within someone’s family or a dispute between a player and a coach, sometimes there just isn’t the right gelling of players together to create a cohesive environment for success. This is where an organizational systems consultant could use their abilities to work with the underlying energies behind-the-scenes affecting the output of the players, coaches, and team personnel. Have you ever seen a player get traded from one team to another and just completely underperform on his new team? Often, this is because the new player has not been ‘energetically’ disconnected from his old team and ‘energetically’ connected to his new team. It’s amazing how simple procedures like this can have the player flourishing that night.

This example is quite small in terms of the power of affecting the energetic relationships of a sports team. Let’s take a baseball team, for instance. The pitchers and catchers need to have a good relationship for their to be any success for the pitcher. Another important relationship is between the players on the field and the pitcher on the mound. Let’s say that the pitcher has a belief system that whenever he pitches and Richie is playing shortstop, Richie makes an error. While this may be the case (statistically speaking), the pitcher’s belief of this to be true has an effect. The pitcher takes the mound and looks to the shortstop’s area where Richie is standing in the ready position. The pitcher thinks to himself, ‘oh no, not Richie again. He always boots the ball when I’m on the mound.’ The pitcher throws the next pitch and there’s a soft groundball to the shortstop. Without fail, Richie makes an error.

An instance like this can be avoided if there was a shift in the energetic relationship between the two players (and an alteration in the belief system). These kinds of fixes are very easy to facilitate on the energetic level and they always have an effect on the way a player plays. When this kind of change is made, energetically, often you will find that the player will just forget that they ever used to have that belief system — it’s like it just disappeared. The next time the pitcher takes the mound, he doesn’t even think about Richie playing shortstop and when the ball gets hit to him, Richie makes the play easily.

These kinds of examples for on-the-field performance are useful, but it is also important to have a fortified connection within the personnel (coaches, managers, owner, etc.). Let’s say that the Director of Scouting (DoS) doesn’t like the General Manager (GM). This could be for something that actually happened between the two or it could be something more subtle. It could just be that the GM was never liked by the DoS and the DoS never knew why. It could be that the reason there is a rift between these two people of the team personnel is because there is some other energetic charge that is influencing the relationship. Maybe the GM reminds the DoS of his father of which he had a poor relationship with – who knows! Regardless, it would be important for someone to be able to positively effect change in this relationship, so that the DoS doesn’t keep sending players to the GM who have below-professional talent.

In looking at the state of the sports world, I wonder if teams that appear to be very successful from year-to-year are employing someone who can bring about the kind of change that I am talking referring to. Something tells me that this is probably not the case. This makes me wonder, which sport, or even which team, will synchronistically meet someone like me who is capable of actualizing this kind of change and reap the benefits for years to come.

When I meet people for the first time, invariably, one of their first few questions (if not their absolute first), “What do you do?” As in, what do you do to make money — earn income — so you can eat and pay your bills. There is nothing inherently wrong with this question, but I wonder at what point in time did our society become so wrapped up in what we do. Where was it in our history that it became imperative for us to discuss our occupation?

It’s an interesting topic and maybe someday I’ll do a post on that, but for now, I’m going to talk about my answer to that question. As what may come as a surprise to some, my answer to that question varies depending on who is asking the question. Shocked? You shouldn’t be. Doesn’t it just make sense for the answer to my question to be different given who is doing the asking? While the words of the question may be the same from person-to-person, invariably, there is going to be a different underlying question that is being asked and this is what I am answering.

When someone asks me the question about what I do, often, I am hearing the answer for the first time, too. I don’t have a rehearsed elevator speech like most people advise, but if I happen to be in an elevator and someone asks me, I seem to have an answer that fits. This is usually either because we’re in an elevator, so they’re not deeply interested in what I do or because something in what I said has sparked their interest, so we’ve gotten off on the same floor and continued our conversation.

Some of my favo[u]rite answers to the questions about what I do usually involve my talking about going beyond the systems and organizations present in our planet. When I am able to get into the nitty-gritty of this kind of answer, I usually get really excited. Sometimes, it’s even appropriate for me to reference the fictional universe of Star Trek in how in that time period, there is no more conflict (external, at least) and the focus is no longer about accumulating monetary wealth. The focus has shifted to that of exploratory, somewhat similar to the way that explorers of the 1500s like Magellan and Columbus are fantasized about through history. Of course there are differing opinions as to what the explorers of that time were really interested in, but in some history books, they were really ‘seeking out new life’ and ‘boldly going where no one had gone before.’

In a fictional universe like Star Trek, I would relish the role of someone who would be an advisor on intergalactic relations. That may sound a bit “out-there” and of course it is because at present, we don’t have intergalactic relations (publicly, at least). Regardless, I think it is immensely important for someone in the room (ship?) to be present to the idea of the macro. Someone who is focused on the implications of not just the next step or the third step, but what it will have on twenty iterations down-the-road.

While I may not be assigned to the USS Enterprise anytime soon, I still feel deeply called to be that guy in the room. To be that guy who is focused on the macro-view of the organization. To be the outsider eyes looking in at the organization, business, or company, identifying ways in which success — in all senses of the word — can be increased.

The beginning – the inauguration. An introduction into a venture whose future is yet to be determined. I always find it interesting to go back to a blog’s first post to see where the author began – to see where they started – what was it they had to say first. Technically, I suppose, this isn’t my first post as I’ve crafted a Comment Policy along with a Copyright & Disclaimer Statement, but for all intents and purposes, this is my first post as a blogger – Jeremiah Stanghini.

In my time, it seems that beginnings are not always viewed as prosperous as they really are. For instance, as we learned from Semisonic’s Closing Time, “…every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end.” Usually when I think about endings, I think about endings and I forget that there is even a beginning to something else. Not until I’m well into the beginning of something else do I realize that the ending of one thing was the beginning to another.

This pattern seems to have persisted in this case, too. Not until I sat down to write this inaugural post did I realize that not only was it the beginning of my ‘blogging career,’ but it was also the ending of my non-blogging career. Yes, I can see how that may sound redundant, and it is, but it is in keeping with the laws of the universe. I suppose we could call it philosophical, too, couldn’t we? Let me explain.

Look up from your computer screen (or from whatever you’re viewing this post) to the nearest window. Depending on what time of day it is, you will either see light or dark. Now, imagine you had no concept of the opposite – are you still seeing what you see as what you see? Let’s make this more concrete. Suppose you look outside and you see light. Great! Maybe it’s sunny where you are or you’re enjoying an atypical sunny day in the midst of winter. While your eyes are seeing light, pretend that you have no concept for dark – you don’t know what it is and you’ve never heard of it. Got it? Now that you don’t know what dark is and you’re looking outside and seeing this ‘light,’ can you really say you are still seeing light?

Without dark, there can’t be light. Without the contrasting nature of the absence of light, there can’t be light. Without light, there can’t be darkness. Without ending, there can’t be beginning. Without beginning, there can’t be ending. There are countless instances from life where without the experience that we are having now is directly tied to the non-experience of what we’re having now. Meaning, if you are experiencing joy, it is because you have experienced no-joy that you can feel the difference.

At first, this may sound a little strange or off-the-wall, but when you really sit with the idea of it, you begin to understand. If all you knew was one half of something, would you really know that it was half of something? If all you knew was the sky to be bright, you would take it for granted that the sky was bright. And not because you weren’t perceptive or anything to that effect, but just because that’s all you know. Another example we can use here is the fish in water. Does the fish know it is in water? No, not until it jumps out of the water and realizes that it can’t breathe!

When you consider this, it has to make you wonder a little… what is it that I’m taking for granted right now that’s preventing me from seeing the whole picture?

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